Brexit Shakes up TSP Plans

The announcement of the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union (also known as “Brexit”) caused a stir in the financial markets last week, and put several of the Thrift Savings Plan’s (TSP) offerings in the red Friday.

The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) reported that the C, S, and I funds were down at the end of last week, with just a few days left in the month of June. On Friday, international stocks were down 5.84 percent and common stocks were down 2.71 percent. The S Fund, which invests in small and midsize companies, showed a loss of 2.58 percent in June.

The F Fund, however, was up 1.24 percent, and is invested in fixed income bonds.

Although they did not cite Brexit as the reason, the FRTIB posted a message last Friday regarding making changes to TSP plans. The message ended by saying:

“An investment strategy of chasing returns or trying to "time the market" means you have to be consistently correct two times: exactly when to get out of a particular asset class and exactly when to get back in. Most investment experts agree that such success is highly unlikely over long periods.”